Temporary staffing company and interview updates

I’ve had two recent fiasco meetings with some more temporary staffing agencies.  I’ve figured out how these companies make their money.  They get commissioned on the number of bodies they get in the door to sign up for their alleged services.  It doesn’t matter how many they actually help find work for.  That’s the only way I can see how any of these companies stay in business.

I had high hopes for KNF&T.  When I met with them they seemed very professional and took the time to ask me what I was looking for now and where I wanted to see myself in the future.  Then, Connie, the woman I met with, told me how once a week she gets jobs in from Human Resources at UMASS.  I told her I’ve already applied there several times.  She told me that their Human Resources department is like a “black hole”.  But I asked her to keep me in mind if a job position that fit my criteria opened up there.

Connie then went on to tell me about a “great opportunity” at a company in Marlborough.  Some hardware manufacturing place.  For a purchase order clerk, or along those lines.  Sounded fine to me, although I have no actual experience in doing that sort of thing, but was willing to give it a shot.  She called me the next day to tell me I had an interview with them.

I went and met with Steve, the supervisor at the hardware manufacturing place.  The best way to describe him is to think of a wet noodle.  Needless to say, the interview lasted a mere ten minutes and I knew it wasn’t going to happen.  On top of that, KNF&T was paying shit for this job and upon complete hire with them (this was a temp-to-perm position), it wasn’t going to be much more than what KNF&T was offering.

When I went to follow up with Connie the following day, she had gone from being the nice individual who had listened to me the previous day to a cold-hearted bitch who basically said, “he could sense your disinterest in the job”.  My disinterest?  He really didn’t tell me much about the job; he had spent most of the time talking about himself and how he had worked his way up through the ranks to Supervisor.  I had to ask him about the position and what it entailed.  But my “disinterest” was for the best.  I can tell you that if I had gotten that position, it wouldn’t have been for very long. 

My next temporary office experience was with Execustaff in Worcester.  What a waste of time that was!  I drove 20 miles into the city just to be told by Brenda, the contact, that they mainly make placements in the medical field.  Since I didn’t have medical field experience, I would probably have to get something in an entry level position and that I would need to e-mail her on a weekly basis for job opportunities.  Sorry, I’m not going to waste my time, Brenda.

On Friday I went for an interview at “ANTON”, which is where my husband works.  I should’ve known it wasn’t going to go over well when Joan, the Supervisor who would be interviewing me, called me up to request the interview and said, “It only pays $30,000, no more than that, just so you’ll know”.  Uh, who says that to you on the phone?

Then when I met with Joan, we weren’t even in the elevator and she asks me, “Why do you want to work at Anton?”  It wasn’t asked like you would ask in an interview such as “So, tell me why you’d like to work here”.  It was asked in an accusatory tone, such as “how dare you try to get a job here”. 

“Well, I’m looking for something different,” I told Joan.

“You’ve been in insurance for so long, though,” she replied.

“Yes, but I’m kind of sick of it,” I explained.

Then came the math test.  She plopped me down at an empty desk right out on the floor with all the other employees instead of having me take the tests in a secluded office or conference room.  I had to listen to one woman on the phone making her party plans for that night and another guy on the other side of the wall complaining to a co-worker about how he always has to clean up after this other co-worker and how he was “always the one getting in trouble”. 

Needless to say, I didn’t have an easy time completing the tests with all the distractions.  Then all Joan did in our interview was talk about herself, the account lines her department worked and kept asking if I had any questions.  I couldn’t wait to get out of there!

On a brighter note, I received three promising calls yesterday:  One for an interview for this Thursday and two other job prospects.

Helpful info when job searching

In my search for jobs over the past many years, I have come to learn many things about what to look for and what not to bother with.  I will mention names in this post and I don’t really care because people need to be warned about scam places and places that don’t help you a lick in finding a job.

First up, I will mention a former place I worked for:  Liberty Mutual.  I think the only good thing about this insurance company were some of the people that worked there.  Then again, some of the people that worked there were jerks too.  Liberty is a great place to work if you don’t mind working in an unethical setting.  The fact that they are probably the only employer left on the face of the Earth that does not screen for drug use (probably because they are too cheap), leaves the door open to many illegal drug users.  In fact, two druggies were caught on the premises with cocaine; instead of canning their asses as it says to do in the handbook, these two were slapped on the wrists and sent to rehab for 28 days.  Then they came back and continued their same old shit.  Finally, they got canned and just in time for one of their boyfriends to be hauled off to jail for drug possession.  This isn’t to mention the crazy lunatic I used to work directly with who was so stoned every day she didn’t even remember my name or the one co-worker who came stumbling out of the ladies’ room reaking of booze.  I should’ve known better to take a job with a place that doesn’t offer drug testing.  That’s part of the reason why I left.  Who wants to get caught in a drug raid?

Looking for an at-home job?  One place to stay away from is HEA Employment.

I joined this site in October 2007 and like everyone else, I have applied, applied, applied. I have over 17 years of transcription experience, word processing experience, can type 70 wpm, have worked as an administrative assistant (and have AA certification as well) yet I have not received a reply to anything I have applied for. Oh, I take that back. I did get an e-mail from some woman in real estate, who indicated she had rec’d my application via HEA. She asked I call an 800 number regarding her job offer. So I did and got a big long recording which ended in her requesting if I was interested, I would need to submit $50.00 to her for database information. Sorry, but I’ve already paid money to use this site, I’m not going to pay her on top of it–for what I don’t know.

I’ve found a few things fishy about this site since I’ve started. First of all, it seems that not all the jobs are at-home jobs. When the listing says “you will need to work in our office”, to me that does not indicate an at-home position. When I questioned HEA about it, I was told that all the jobs should be at-home and if I ran across any that indicated they weren’t to let them know. Well, there were quite a few. Also, as another poster mentioned, there were a few jobs I e-mailed directly and they had no knowledge of having a job listing on HEA. I found this interesting.

Secondly, when searching for admin/clerical jobs lately I’ve noticed nothing new has been added, as Tigerfish is still listed as first and I applied to them way back in November. Why is it once you apply for a job you cannot apply again? Some companies only keep your info on file for so long. That doesn’t make any sense either.

Thirdly, this company may have a satisfactory record listed with the BBB, however, within the past 36 months there has been a complaint and even if it is only ONE complaint, it is still a complaint. And I can see why.

Another question I have is that if you are to apply for a position via HEA, using the link “apply for this job” but the job also lists a link for their web site and actual application page, why should I apply via HEA when I can apply right on that company’s site? How do I even know once I click on “apply for this job” through HEA that HEA is forwarding my resume on to the company? I never receive a reply that the company received my resume. All I get is a confirmation from HEA saying they forwarded my resume. How do I have proof that they did? Especially when I don’t hear a word from anyone.

As for those who have posted regarding their “job success”, it would be helpful if you indicated what you did differently than those of us who have not achieved such success. One gentleman indicated that he “followed all the directions”. Well, I’d like to know what directions you received that were different than what the rest of us received. You can only follow directions you are given. If you aren’t given any, then there’s nothing to follow, is there?

I think HEA just proves another point in the old adage “you should not pay for a job”. After all, we all did pay money to HEA in order to find employment. Since it seems that the majority of the people on here have not found anything, even after years of searching, then I’d say it’s safe to say that HEA fits into the category of “job scam”. Remember that in poor customer service, one dissatisfied customer tells at least 8-10 people of their negative experience. And then they tell 8-10 people also.

Next up, let’s talk about those temporary job agencies.  I am registered with six of them and not ONE of them has found me a job.  When I first go to meet with a recruiter they get me all excited thinking I’m going to be able to get at least a temp job for a while, until something permanent comes along.  Right.

OfficeTeam is one that comes to mind.  A day after I first went there, I got a call from the Rep at OT.

“We have a client who really, really needs someone right away.  Can you go in for an interview today?”.  It was Friday.

Well, no I couldn’t.  It was 11 o’clock in the morning and I had my day planned already.  If they were that desperate and they really wanted me, they could talk to me on Monday.

“Fine.  You can meet with them Monday at 10.”

Great.  Except apparently she never told this company I was coming because they sure were suprised to see me!

“OT never told us you were coming,” the man I spoke with told me.

“Oh, that’s interesting.”

This guy didn’t seem to be in any big rush to fill this position, which was paying a lousy $11.50/hr through OT.  In fact, at the end of the conversation he indicated that he had a few other candidates to speak with.  Huh?  A few other candidates?  What happened to “someone they need right now”?

When I called OT to follow up, my representative just brushed it off, as if she knew it was going to happen.  I haven’t heard anything since.  Also, any calls I have made to OT for job searches have gone unanswered.

Placement Employment is a place I found via the unemployment office.  After going there, speaking with a representative, being given a plethora of tests, passing the tests, being told that there was a possible job coming up at the start of February, I have yet to hear from them.  In fact, two weeks ago I called to get “Well, he’s been out of the office sick.  You can leave a voice mail.”

I haven’t got a call back yet.  Maybe he’s dead.

Complete Staffing is the latest bunch of temp agency morons I have dealt with.  Last week I had an appointment with a recruiter who talked up this temp-to-hire job to me.  I even told him I would be willing to drive out for an interview with the place that Friday in a snow storm. 

“I’ll call you about it either by the end of today (Thurs) or first thing tomorrow morning,” the recruiter said.

Well, I didn’t wait for him because I knew he wouldn’t call.  I waited until 10:00 a.m. Friday and when I didn’t hear from him, I called there.

“Oh, he’s on the road right now,” the person who answered the phone told me.

I left a message.  As of today (Tuesday) he has yet to call me back.  And I called again today and left another message.

As for the other three, Suburban Staffing was allegedly having an “open house” last Thursday.  I dropped off my resume and met with a recruiter for about five minutes.  For a temp agency having an “open house”, they didn’t seem too busy.  And in speaking with them today, they don’t have any jobs available right now either.  Open house?  How do these places stay in business?

Snelling is just a place I went to on a whim.  I’m not expecting the world from them.

And Thursday I have another appt. with KNFT so I’ll see what they have up their temporary sleeves.

As for unemployment, other than dishing out benefits, they aren’t too helpful in many other departments, unless you have virtually no skills and need to start from square one.  They have their listing of jobs, which is really just a link which sends you to a temp agency such as Placement Employment.

I had to laugh the day I went and saw on their calendar they were hosting a recruiting event with Carroll Enterprises.  I told the recruiter at unemployment that I just had an interview with them and the Human Resources individual was about as friendly as a wet mop.  She wouldn’t even shake my hand.

When searching for a job on the internet, one thing I have found helpful is to forget about going to Monster.com.  Go to indeed.com instead.  It lists all the jobs, newest to oldest, from all the web sites:  Monster, Careerbuilder, etc.  So you don’t have to keep going from site to site searching.

Watch out for those work at home jobs that ask you for money.  Remember, jobs are to pay YOU; it’s not the other way around.

One web site I have found helpful in searching for at-home work is homejobstop.com  At least it’s free to join.